Automatic Gainsay wrote:"Paraphonic" is a term that has to do with articulation... not a term that has to do with how many notes a synth can generate. A "paraphonic" synthesizer is one where all of the notes generated... from 1 to 1,000,000... go through a single filter and VCA combination. That's it. That is what "paraphonic" means. It's just more noticeable when you're trying to articulate polyphonic passages.
I think you need to do more research on the term "Paraphonic" and where it originated.
Paraphonic is a Roland created name they put on models back in 1977/78. Just like the made up name "Compuphonic", Roland put the "Paraphonic" label on synthesizers that were able to produce what we would call today "Multi-layered". Two such models were the GS/GR-500 Paraphonic Guitar Synthesizer and the RS-505 Paraphonic keyboard. The prefix "para" in english means along side or side by side, like paramedic or paralegal. Roland seemed to have the same idea or intent with using the term describing synthesizers that were capable of producing more than one tone with each key press or string pluck.
Roland describes the GR/GS-500 Paraphonic Guitar Synthesizer as:
"A paraphonic system comprising five sections: guitar, polyensemble, bass, solo melody and external synthesizer. They can be played simultaneously thereby producing sounds in unique modes."
The Roland Paraphonic 505 is similar in that it is capable of playing seperate layered tones simultaneously, string section, synthesizer section and bass. It could even play splits or different tones side by side.
This is where I see the confusion. Many of those similar type stringers could be lumped into the Paraphonic definition as many of these machines could indeed play layered tones. The Moog Opus 3 has three sections, organ, strings and brass that could also be played simultaneously. And likewise the ARP Omni I/II had similar paraphonic capabilities. This all happened in those late 70's when a layered synth/organ was all the rage.
Enter the 80's and polyphonic and MIDI took over. With MIDI came the first true "Multi-timbral" synths. Those paraphonic mulit-layered dinosaurs were long forgotten along with many great monophonic synthesizers.
By the late 90's these vintage machines were becoming popular again, with many rediscovering them. Enter in the internet of the late 90's and an SOS article claiming that "Paraphonic" now means only having one filter or one VCA, and that is how misinformation is spread. In the late 70's when these were made it did not refer to that at all. And it was a Roland term. But language is an ever changing/morphing thing. But I think the original meaning holds up better than one given where a single filter, VCA, or EG makes a synth paraphonic. By that definition my Korg PS-3100 would be paraphonic because the 12 oscillators, 48 VCF/VCA's bottle neck through a single voltage controlled resonator filter with a single VCA and single envelope. In the 70's, "Paraphonic" was Roland's way of saying mulit-layered sound. Look it up!
